Checkmate

The purpose of chess is checkmate. Everything else – the number of pieces taken, the clarity of the strategy, the finesse of the tactics – is just the stuff you do to get to checkmate.

Of course, for some, the game also evokes beauty and fascination for its own sake. So it’s great if you can do both – but it is critically important to be clear on your personal priorities. A successful chess game is not conducted as a compromise between elegance and winning.

Design projects, on the other hand, are often presented as a balance between time, cost and quality: design as a hostage to value engineering. But getting the balance right doesn’t mean there isn’t an endgame: design, create, checkmate.

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Tunnel Vision

The human eye is constructed in such a way that we have an inevitable ‘blind spot’. We cope with this by scanning our visual field with both eyes and by deducing what we should be seeing. We make an educated guess.

This is fine. The mistake is to assume that because we see something, then everybody else sees it the same way. One person’s educated deduction is another’s wild gamble. Couple this with every culture’s unwillingness to see things which don’t fit into our frame of reference, then we are all literally blind to some things staring us in the face.

So, the last thing we need is to exacerbate this with wilful tunnel vision. It is difficult to see things as they truly are without deciding in advance that we will refuse to look to the left or the right, but cleave only to the marked pathway. Sometimes, like Robert Frost, we need to pay more attention to ‘The Road not Taken’.

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Chekhov

Anton Chekhov is reckoned to be the master of the classical short story. In his letters he sets out the basis for good writing: objectivity, honesty, brevity, daring and compassion. Hallelujah. Brief writers please take note.

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Blue

What we mean by a colour depends on who we are – our references, our culture, our past, our life. A single sliver of colour can transform how we view a space: what we think it stands for, and the boundaries we place on its potential.

Sometimes what one person sees as a detail is not a little thing but something which dominates another person’s response to a place. So, for some, colour is a little thing – for others it is an overwhelming aspect of their enjoyment of a space. Google the word ‘blue’ and you get the official website for a boy band, an Edinburgh restaurant, and some Wikipedia science. Colour is not just in the eye of the beholder but also in their brain.

Almost always, the people who use buildings ask for more colour – and we listen, and reflect, and select cool greys and whites ‘with a touch of white’ – rather than listen to the subtext of their pleas. Blue is not always blue.

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Great Streets

Educational buildings are not sited in some space time continuum – to use the terminology of science fiction: rather they form an important part of the urban fabric –to use the terminology of urbanism.

A street with a school frontage is a different street than one with houses – it creates a different experience and contributes to the creation of a different neighbourhood. So, dealing with these issues is not just a matter for Planners.

Making pupils aware that their building is not only located within their neighbourhood but significantly determines what their neighbourhood is about, is an important lesson. The lesson for architects is that designing whole places is always a part of designing for whole lives.

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Showing Off

A resource rich, flexible school that sits well in its environment and delivers on its brief. A school that doesn’t show off but just does its job well. Difficult to photograph for the glossy design journal.

It is easy to be distracted by architectural peacock displays when first visiting a school. What you remember are the memorable features. Unless you talk to people. Unless you watch what is happening and listen to how people feel about the space. Then you remember differently – about stories rather than things.

There is absoutely nothing wrong with memorable architecture or about a building showing off – when there is something to be proud of. But what we should be showing off is what happens everyday inside our buildings not how well they photograph in the sunlight.

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The MacGuffin

Many film thrillers employ the Hitchcock device of a MacGuffin. That’s to say some plot element which provides an excuse for the narrative to take place and propels the action forward. Think of ‘The Maltese Falcon’ or ‘North by Northwest’.

The important thing about a MacGuffin is that it doesn’t necessarily need to be that important – or even real. What it does is provide a context for exploring more important things like values and relationships.

Sometimes design plays the same role – it creates a safe place to challenge issues, an excuse to challenge deeply held precepts. Indeed, the most significant impact of design can be its role as a plot device to explore and realise new narratives. The best outcome is not always a building.

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